1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to structural glass railing base shoe designs and particularly to a structural glass railing base shoe design that uses no grout or wedges.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Structural glass railing systems with an extruded base shoe component have been rather common in the market for many years. These prior art systems utilize a U-shaped base extrusion called the base shoe to hold and support tempered glass panels. The glass panels are retained in the base shoe with either a grout material or mechanical wedges. The grouted application involves simply pouring liquid grout, cement, or other adhesive into the channel once the glass is properly positioned, thus locking the glass panel in place and creating a relatively permanent installation. If a glass panel should need to be removed due to breakage or some other reason, the hardened grout must be chipped away to clear the pocket before a new panel could be installed. Because workers are chipping out grout right next to some exposed glass edges of adjacent glass panels, this activity is very time consuming and possibly dangerous.
One recent solution to the grout problem is a system that replaces the grout with a system that uses a wedge-shaped piece that is pounded down on either side of the glass panels in conjunction with some vinyl pieces. This design is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,419,209, 6,517056, and 7,036,799. The force produced by the wedge action is enough to hold the glass firmly. There is also a special tool that can actually pull the wedges out of the channel to facilitate a removal. However, this operation is difficult to do, and one must have this special tool to do it. Moreover, the wedges are driven into the base shoe using a special chisel type tool and a hammer. This type of installation increases the risk of damage to a glass panel during the installation.